Contemporary churches in Rome
Sacred and modern

The Church of Dio Padre Misericordioso was designed by Richard Meier

By Emiliano Pretto
march 2009

The Church of Dio Padre Misericordioso, commonly known as the Jubilee Church was commissioned for the Roman Catholic Church’s Holy Year in 2000. Designed by the American architect Richard Meier it was opened in 2003 in the nondescript working-class Roman suburb of Tor Tre Teste. Meier’s building, a dramatic church and community centre surrounded by 1970’s apartment blocks. has already become an iconic landmark of contemporary architecture in one of the world’s most historic cities, and has set new standards for international church design.
The building is bright white – and it will remain so; specially treated building materials mean the church is permanently protected from urban pollution thanks to a process whereby, reacting with oxygen, the church is effectively self-cleaning.
The project features concrete, stucco, travertine, and glass. Three dramatic concrete shells, like huge gliding white sails, arc in graduated heights alongside the main church building. The proportions of the complex are based on a series of displaced squares and four circles. Three circles of equal radius generate the profiles of the three shells that, together with the spine-wall, make up the body of the church nave – and discreetly imply the Holy Trinity.

Glass ceilings and skylights in the church span the entire length of the building filling the space with natural light. At night, light emanates from within creating an ethereal presence and animating the landscape.
In the Jubilee Church, the three concrete shells define an enveloping atmosphere in which the light from the skylights above creates a luminous spatial experience, and the rays of sunlight serve as a mystic metaphor of the presence of God.
Meier’s church attracts thousands of visitors. It has rapidly achieved iconic status as an example of modern sacred architecture and contemporary architecture in general.
In recent years contemporary architecture has enjoyed a renaissance in Rome, with a series of major public projects involving high-profile international architects like Meier, Renzo Piano, Zaha Hadid, Odile Decq, Santiago Calatrava and Massimiliano Fuksas. But for much of the second half of the last century contemporary architecture seemed to be greeted with indifference – and occasionally outright hostility – by city authorities. For decades, new churches in the city were generally also undistinguished.
We must go back to 1955 to find a large church of real interest: the massive domed basilica dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul which was inaugurated in the modern business suburb of EUR.
Work on this squared church with is huge dome began in 1938 under fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
The new suburb was intended for a Universal Exhibition (Esposizione Universale Romana) celebrating Fascist Italy – planned in the 1930s and scheduled for 1942 but abandoned upon the outset of war. Only some of the plans – had been finished, and after the war work continued in a modernist style but without the same political agenda. EUR is now dominated by corporate offices and wide leafy boulevards.

The Basilica dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul in EUR
photo: StefZ / flickr

The church perfectly echoes Mussolini’s dictates for fascist architecture: massive, imposing, grandiloquent. In a green and flowery setting, the basilica is built in white travertine at the highest point of EUR so that the church dominates the entire district. At the top of the steps, two big statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul welcome visitors. From the terrace that surrounds the building, you can enjoy a beautiful view over all of EUR. Since 2007 the church has undergone major restoration.

Of far more classical design is the Church of Gran Madre di Dio at Ponte Milvio. Commissioned by Pope Pius XI, it was completed in 1937 but so faithfully did architect Cesare Bazzini follow Neo-Classical principles that it would be easy to believe it dates back to the 18th century.
The large dome is flanked by two bell-towers, and rests on an octagonal drum with eight rectangular windows
Dozens of small churches have been built in Rome since the 1950’s, few are of distinction. In 2000 the Vatican launched its “100 Churches” project to fund the building of new chucrhes across the city. None, however, have matched the beauty, or the architectural importance, of the three buildings described below.